KANSAS CITY, Mo. — When Terry Francona spent last season away from the dugout, as an analyst for ESPN, he expected to gain perspective on life. He needed the break after eight seasons of exhilaration and exhaustion as manager of the Boston Red Sox, but his mind rarely strayed from the only life he has known.

“I have no perspective,” Francona said Tuesday, smiling as he spit tobacco juice into a Gatorade cup in the visiting manager’s office. There is no place he would rather be than here, managing the Cleveland Indians in a pennant race.

“He’s pretty simple as far as how he goes about his day: It’s baseball, baseball, baseball,” said bullpen coach Kevin Cash, a former catcher for Francona’s Red Sox. “Whatever we’re doing, we’re talking about baseball. We can be playing cards or watching TV, but the conversation is always on this team.”

By now, Cash knows that when the coaches and Francona agree to leave for the field at 11:30, Francona will text them a half-hour early, eager to get going. Francona is always comfortable at the ballpark, and usually bored away from it.

Yet, as much as he loves the game, Francona’s bitter exit from the Red Sox made him wary of taking just any job. The team had folded down the stretch in 2011, undone largely by a toxic clubhouse and the breakdown of trust between the front office and the manager. He was sure it would not be like that in Cleveland.

Francona had worked there in 2001, as a special assistant in baseball operations. He knew the team president, Mark Shapiro, and the general manager, Chris Antonetti. In time, perhaps, he could have built a strong relationship with another management team. With the Indians, it was already there.

“I wanted to be in a place where I thought it would bring out the good in me,” Francona said. “So when I went in to interview with Chris, I knew. It’s funny, I hear people say, ‘Oh, he knew they were going to spend money or he wouldn’t have taken the job.’ I never asked.”

The Indians did spend last winter, signing the free agents Michael Bourn and Nick Swisher. Both have had down years, by their standards, yet the Indians stood just a half-game out of a wild-card spot after Tuesday’s 5-3 victory over the Royals.

The Indians, whose pitching has come on strong in the second half, play the lowly Astros, White Sox and Twins after this series. That gives them a strong chance to make the playoffs for the first time since 2007, when Francona’s Red Sox stopped them one win short of making the World Series.

“We would not be where we are without Tito,” Antonetti said. “The impact he’s made on our organization — not just the major league team — has been profound.”

Tito is the name of Francona’s father, an All-Star outfielder for the Indians in 1961, and the name baseball people use for Terry. The decision to manage the Indians had nothing to do with that history, Francona said, but it made for a touching moment.

Francona did not decorate his office at Progressive Field when the Indians hired him in October. But when the team arrived there for its first home game in April, he found vintage family photos from Cleveland on the walls.

“That’s the way this organization’s been,” Francona said. “It’s not family, but it’s about as close as you can get to that feeling. So I just want so bad to do the right thing.”

“I get a little careful when they say I’m changing the culture, or being responsible for that. I want to be a part of that, but it’s us doing it together. It’s a complete team effort, and that’s why it’s working.”

Francona, 54, meshed well in Boston with Theo Epstein, a much younger general manager who did not play professionally. Antonetti, 38, fits the same description. He was an assistant in 2001, when Francona worked for the Indians, and immediately won his respect. Antonetti was the smartest person in the room, Francona said, but never condescending.

After his introductory news conference in Cleveland last fall, Francona flew to Arizona with Antonetti, who has a home in Goodyear, where the Indians train. Francona stayed over and fit right in.

“I feel so comfortable, I’m walking around his house in my underwear,” Francona said. “There’s just no barriers. I can tell him anything — and I have — and I know that when he leaves my office, he’s got my back.”

Francona is so close to Antonetti, and so trusted, that he baby-sat for Antonetti’s young daughters in spring training. In Cleveland, Francona lives two blocks from the ballpark. He has a winter home in Tucson, Ariz., but plans to return to Cleveland one week each month in the off-season, to help around the office.

“My biggest worry is I don’t want to let him down,” Francona said. “That’s how I feel: I don’t want to let him down.”

Antonetti hired Francona for his personal skills, impressed by how he handled so many different personalities in Boston while integrating young players to the team. He has come to understand a benefit to Francona’s punctuality: By arriving for work so early, Francona is finished with his preparation when the players arrive. He can devote his time to bonding with them.

“Tito has this unbelievable care and love for his players,” said Jason Giambi, the veteran designated hitter and a clubhouse conduit for Francona. “He’s the easiest guy to play for, he truly is. There’s always been this thing that managers and players can’t be friends. You’ve got to have that cutoff, like, ‘I’m the manager, you’re the player.’ But Tito reconfirms to me that you can have that relationship and be successful.”

In Boston, at the end, some of Francona’s players took advantage of that dynamic. But Francona said he never doubted his style, and could never change it, anyway. He likes players, and has never disguised it.

Francona said he nearly got emotional this season when Giambi, still a bear of a man, dived into first base to beat out an infield hit. When starter Corey Kluber sprained a finger last month, an injury that sent him to the disabled list, Francona was so distraught that he had to excuse himself.

“Later I pulled him aside, and I go, ‘I’m sorry, man,'” Francona said. “But I find myself caring about these guys so much that sometimes I get mad at them, because I believe in them so much and I want them to play better.

“I think I believe in them more than our numbers,” Francona continued. “Like, our numbers may not add up, but that doesn’t mean we can’t add up. And I think that as long as we believe that, we’re going to have a chance.”

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